Finn, D & Dorricott M G, 2002. in Proceedings 8th AusIMM Underground Operators Conference. Townsville July 2002 pp. 177-180.

Reprinted with permission of The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy.

Cemented Rockfill For Extraction of High Grade Crown Pillars at Crusader Gold Mine
By D Finn 1 & M G Dorricott 2

Introduction
This paper describes the design, construction and performance of sill pillars using cemented development mullock at the Crusader Gold Mine. The orebody is some 35m-60m in length, 5m-8m wide, dipping at 60-85 and plunging at about 40 to the north. It is accessed via a footwall decline. The ore occurs at the contact between basalt and ultra-mafic. This contact is characterized by shearing and alteration; and is prone to unraveling failure. The cut and fill mining method at Crusader extracts 25m high ore blocks in four flat back lifts and one 8m thick crown pillar. To enable full recovery of these high-grade crown pillars with minimal dilution, a 5m thick sill pillar is constructed using cemented rock fill (CRF), after mining of the bottom two lifts in each block. Uncemented development mullock is used as rock fill (RF) for subsequent lifts. Development mullock and cement/water slurry is mixed underground to produce CRF. The fill is transported to the stope in LHDs and dumped on the floor. The sill pillar is advanced progressively, with compaction provided by the loader driving over the previously placed fill. Old jumbo rods are installed as shear pins along the flat dipping hangingwall to reduce the risk of rotational failure of the pillar. A fan of cable bolts is installed into the hangingwall to prevent unraveling failure in the sheared ground. Buffer blasting is used to minimise damage to the CRF sill pillar when the crown pillar below is extracted. At the time of writing, extraction of the crown pillar underneath the CRF has taken place at the 930 stope. The crown pillar was extracted successfully with dilution from the backfill and hangingwall minimised and 98% of the gold recovered. This compares with pillars that were mined beneath uncemented backfill where only 70% of the gold was recovered and where there was significant dilution from the backfill and from hangingwall failures. Where no CRF was placed, there were also numerous production delays caused by large rocks from the hangingwall blocking the stope brow.

Introduction
Crusader is part of the Agnew Gold Operation and is located 10km southwest of Agnew, some 30km southwest of Leinster in Western Australia. Initially, open pit mining was conducted to a depth of 50m between 1989 and 1990 by Asarco Australia at the Cox Pit. Underground development by WMC Resources Ltd commenced in 1993, but mining was suspended in September 1996 pending further planning and evaluation. A feasibility study was completed in late 1997 and underground development recommenced in April 1998. In December 2001 the mine was sold to Gold Fields South Africa who are the current operators.
1. Senior Geotechnical Engineer, Kanowna Belle Gold Mine, Email: [email protected] Formerly Senior Geotechnical Engineer, Agnew Gold Operation Principal Mining Engineer, AMC Consultants Pty Ltd, 19/114 William Street, Melbourne Vic 3000. E-mail: [email protected]

The geology of Crusader consists of basalt with an ultramafic hangingwall. The ore zone occurs at the contact between the basalt and ultramafic and is often associated with a 0.5-2.0m thick chlorite/talc-carbonate shear along the contact. The different rock types are described geotechnically as: Basalt - a strong stiff material. Block and wedge style failures are common. The UCS is about 240MPa. Shear a highly friable, very weak, soft material. The shear is not mineralized, but is usually mined out with the orebody. Unraveling failure is common. The UCS is between 3MPa and 13MPa. Ultramafic hangingwall - talc/carbonate alteration. This material is sometimes fissile at the contact, which has low friction and low cohesion. The UCS of the ultramafic ranges from 9MPa to 110MPa.

2.

Cemented Rockfill for Extraction of High Grade Crown Pillars at Crusader Gold Minees

The orebody is 5m-8m wide and varies in length from 35m60m along strike. It dips at 60-85 and plunges to the north at about 40. To the south, the ore becomes too narrow to be economic and to the north, the ultramafic contact cross cuts the mineralized basalt. Byrnecut Mining carries out underground mining and the ore is treated at the Emu plant, some 10 km away.

pillar. Although extraction of the first four crown pillars was achieved, it involved bogging out most of the waste rock fill in the stopes above, resulting in massive dilution. Substantial hanging wall failures with consequential dilution occurred during these pillar extraction operations. To reduce these problems in future stopes, it was proposed to place a CRF sill pillar in the first cut and fill lift. The rest of the stope would be filled conventionally with uncemented waste. The crown pillar would be extracted from under the CRF sill pillar using remote LHDs. One potential problem that was identified was the contact between the cemented sill pillar and the hangingwall ultramafics. Very poor bonding was expected here and a rotational failure of the pillar could occur. Some means of keying the pillar into the hangingwall was required.

Mining Operations
The orebody is accessed via a footwall decline in the basalt with crosscuts to the orebody. It is extracted by a cut and fill mining method in 25m high blocks, using waste rock as backfill. In the upper, wider sections of the orebody, 4m x 4m post pillars were left. The sill drive is put in 5m high by 5m wide, following the hangingwall contact and stripped out to the width of the orebody after footwall sludge drilling. Previously, the sill drive was backfilled with development waste on completion. Three 4m high cut and fill lifts were then mined following the drive below, leaving an 8m thick crown pillar under the previous stoping block. This means that about 32% of the ore for each stope is contained in the crown pillar. Figure 1 is a long section of the mining showing these details. These crown pillars were originally planned to be mined out as an uphole retreat from the ends back to the cross cut, which if it had been ideally placed, was at the northern end of the orebody. However, for production and global stability reasons, pillar recovery was deferred. With the orebody narrowing and shortening considerably, it became necessary to attempt extraction of the crown pillars to maintain the target production rate. The first such attempts were complicated by the presence of post pillars above the crown

Sill Pillar Design

The sill pillar design was done by Australian Mining Consultants (AMC, 2001). A spreadsheet was used to determine the strength of the undercut sill pillars, based on Mitchells method (Mitchell et al, 1982). This method focuses on the tensile strength required in the lower part of the pillar to prevent failure due to flexural bending. This tensile strength is then converted to an unconfined compressive strength (UCS) requirement using an empirical factor of ten. A pillar strength of 700kPa was indicated for the maximum expected span of 8m. The minimum pillar thickness should be at least half of the maximum span ie 4m; but after discussions with site personnel, a thickness of 5m was adopted. Based on experience at other operations, it was expected that a strength of 700kPa would be achieved by the addition of about 5% (by weight) Portland cement. It was decided to use a 6% mix to provide an additional safety margin.

Figure 1 Long section looking towards the footwall

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Cemented Rockfill for Extraction of High Grade Crown Pillars at Crusader Gold Minees

In order to minimise the transmission of blast energy into the CRF pillar, a 0.3m layer of loose material, such as sand or gravel, was recommended to be placed on the floor of the sill under the CRF. Local lateritic gravel, used for pad preparation, was identified as suitable for this purpose. Up holes drilled in crown pillars are currently stopped about 0.5m short of breakthrough and this practice is being continued. Because of the weak nature of the ultramafic contact on the hangingwall and the presence of a sub-parallel shear, there was likely to be insufficient bonding between the CRF sill pillar and the hangingwall to eliminate the risk of a rotational failure. There was no practical way to effectively key the sill pillar into the hangingwall due to the dip and plunge, so some other method of preventing rotation was required. Cable bolting of the hangingwall was standard practice, so if these cables were left protruding into the sill pillar, they would provide some support. However, the tensile strength of the cable bolt would only be mobilised after some downward movement of the pillar occurred and this movement was considered to be undesirable. A more effective approach was to insert some stiff pins into the hangingwall that would provide significant shear resistance to the initial rotation. Used jumbo drill rods about 3.5m in length were available locally and proved ideal for this purpose. Two rows were designed on a 1.5m x 1.5m2 grid along the full length of the hangingwall and around the northern nose end, with 2m of the pin inserted into the hangingwall and about 1.5m protruding into the sill pillar.

lift. Once this lift was completed, the ore was bogged out, leaving a 9m high opening. This provided sufficient height for the loader to tip CRF into the opening and create a 5m thick sill pillar. In addition to the typical development support of the hangingwall, fans of 8m twin strand cable bolts were installed. These were to ensure the stability of the hangingwall over the 9m vertical span and to inhibit the unraveling failure of the weak hangingwall rocks. Shear pins, consisting of discarded drill steels, were installed along the length of the drive to minimize the risk of rotational failure. Figure 3 shows the ground reinforcement used in the sill drive and the first cut and fill lift. A 300mm layer of lateritic gravel was laid on the floor of the drive. This served two purposes. It provided a layer that would dampen the affects of the blast from below and it acted as a marker horizon when the underlying crown pillar was mined. Figure 4 shows the sill drive with shear pins and gravel placed, just prior to construction of the CRF sill pillar.

Figure 2 Mining the 955 crown pillar underneath the FB200 sill pillar.

FB200 Sill Pillar (Fosroc, 2001)

To facilitate extraction of the last two crown pillars at the 980 and 955 levels without a CRF sill pillar above, binding of the uncemented rock fill was done using an ettrigite based cement product called FB200, manufactured by Fosroc Mining Australia. These cements are mixed at high water cement ratios (between 4:1 and 2:1), producing a low viscosity grout that will flow easily and penetrate the in situ backfill. Additives are used to control the gelling rate, enabling the distance that the grout can flow to be controlled. Several injection holes were drilled by McMahons Underground Drilling into the backfill from the top drive, using a wireline diamond drill rig. Once the target depth was reached, polypipe was run down the rod string, which was then extracted leaving the polypipe in place. These then served as the injection holes for the FB200 grout to be pumped into the backfill to form a 5m thick pillar. Both of these crown pillars have been mined successfully, with dilution from the backfill and the hangingwall minimised and more than 97% of the gold recovered. Figure 2 shows stoping from the 955 level underneath the FB200 pillar. Some ore loss occurred when dragging the cut-off slot up to full height and under the ultramafic nose at the northern end of the stope.

Figure 3 Ground reinforcement of the sill drive and first cut and fill lift.

CRF Sill Pillar Construction

Construction of the first CRF sill pillar commenced in January 2001 at the 930 level. The process is described in detail by Shamu (2001). The sill drive was mined as usual to a height of 5m, but was not backfilled with development waste. The next 4m lift was then mined, with the ore being left in the stope to fill the 5m void, creating the mining platform for the second AMC Reference Library www.amcconsultants.com.au

A mobile cement batch plant was used on surface to produce a cement slurry with a water cement ratio of 0.7:1.0, which was 3

Cemented Rockfill for Extraction of High Grade Crown Pillars at Crusader Gold Minees

transported underground in a 7m3 agitator truck. Up to 13 truck loads were transported in a 12 hour shift. The slurry was mixed with about 65 tons of development waste that was spread evenly along the stockpile floor. The slurry was spread over the development waste, starting at the back of the stockpile and gradually working forward to ensure there was an even distribution of slurry. The rock was then mixed with the slurry by a loader in the stockpile, until it was completely coated. This took up to 12 load and dump cycles. The waste was then tipped into the stope to a survey line marked at 5m from the floor. The placement started at the cross cut, building the pillar to the full height and then working to the north and south. As far as was practical, the process was continuous in order to reduce the possibility of cold joints. As the pillar was constructed, the loader would repeatedly drive across the still wet CRF, further compacting it. The last loads at the northern end were patted down with the loader bucket.

remaining ore was extracted successfully. The ore was moved using tele-remote loaders and trucked to surface.

Figure 5 CRF sill pillar exposed during mining of the 930 stope crown pillar.

Figure 4 - 930 stope sill drive just prior to CRF placement.

When the stope was completed, 98% of the ounces had been recovered and the dilution figure was 20%. This compares with the performance from pillars mined under uncemented backfill where only 70% of the gold was recovered and there was significant dilution from the hangingwall and backfill. There had previously been significant production delays caused by large slabs of the hangingwall ultramafic blocking the brow, which had necessitated drilling and blasting to break them up.

Table 1 Comparison of two mining scenarios with and without a CRF pillar at the 930 level
Activity With CRF Sill Pillar $97,000 $54,000 $9,500 $13,500 $45,500 $120,500 $340,000 With no CRF Sill Pillar $9,500 $13,500 $61,000 $181,000 $265,000

Extraction of Crown Pillar

The crown pillar at the 930 level under the first CRF sill pillar was extracted in October and November 2001. It was mined as an uphole retreat from the south end back to the cross cut at the northern end. A slot was established by slashing up until the blast rings were dumped 10 forward and the full stope height had been achieved. Only the last ring was stood up to vertical. The blast holes were pulled up 0.5m short of breaking through into the CRF pillar, to minimise potential blast damage. When the pillar was exposed at the southern end it guttered up along the hangingwall, exposing the shear pins that had been placed in the hangingwall. There was failure of CRF from the middle of the pillar as seen in Figure 5. This was attributed to the grout in the initial mixes being too dry and not coating the waste rock completely. Despite this, the pillar held back the backfill above it and the hangingwall remained stable. As the stope was retreated to the north and more of the pillar was exposed, the guttering and CRF failure reduced and the stope was retreated to the cross cut with no significant failures of the CRF pillar or the hangingwall occurring. The firing of the very northern rings had always been difficult in the past because the ultramafic contact wraps around, forming a nose that can easily detach, resulting in a hazardous area and dilution. In the 930 stope, the crown pillar remained in place at the nose, helping to stabilize the ground and the

Sill Pillar Placement Extra Support Extra Development Drill and Blast Loading and Trucking Milling & Administration Total Costs

Cost Benefit Analysis

The financial benefit of placing a CRF sill pillar is shown in Table 1, which compares two mining scenarios - with and without a CRF pillar at the 930 level. Cost benefit analyses were done during the initial design phase and after the pillar had been extracted. The former showed there was a significant potential financial reward to be gained by placing the CRF pillar and the latter proved this. Whilst the costs for the CRF pillar placement and the extra support costs were higher (Table 1), these were partially offset by the reduced cost of mining and milling a lower tonnage, due to much less dilution. The extra gold recovered resulted in a significant increase in revenue. The CRF sill pillar also allowed the 930 stope crown pillar to be mined quickly, with no production delays from large rocks blocking the draw point and no additional development being required to access the ore.

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Cemented Rockfill for Extraction of High Grade Crown Pillars at Crusader Gold Minees

In the analysis, the gold price was assumed to be A$530. Based on previous mining of crown pillars, the dilution and recovery were assumed to be 50% and 70% respectively for the no CRF sill pillar case. 5,401 tonnes were actually recovered from the crown pillar at a grade of 28.68g/t, yielding a total of 4,981 ounces of gold. The revenue generated by the mining of the crown pillar with the CRF in place was $2,640,000. With no CRF sill pillar, this revenue would have been only $1,848,000. The benefit of the CRF pillar at the 930 level is calculated to be $792,000. Similar benefits are expected in the future for stopes where CRF pillars have been placed above the crown pillars.

reduced dilution and slightly higher costs, resulting in a significant overall financial gain. Grout injection into already placed waste rock fill was used to create two cemented crown pillars, which performed well. Subsequently, pre-mixed CRF was used to construct a sill pillar on the 930 Level. The estimated financial benefit of this pillar was about $0.7M.

References
1. 2. AMC. 2001. Crusader Backfill Study. AMC report to Agnew Gold Operations, unpublished. Fosroc Mining et al. 2001. Crown Pillar Recovery Project. Fosrock, unpublished. Mitchell, RJ, Olsen, RS and Smith, JD. 1982. Model studies on cemented tailings used in mine backfill. Can Geotech J. Vol 19. Shamu, W. 2001. Cemented Mullock Filling of Ore Drive. internal Agnew Gold Operations Report BP057, unpublished.

Conclusions
3. In the past, recovery of high grade crown pillars at Crusader mine has involved extraction of large quantities of waste rock fill, resulting in high rates of dilution, lower head grades and high costs per ounce of gold recovered. Recent use of cemented rock fill sill pillars has resulted in higher gold recovery,

4.

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